Video: Tony Abbott’s dinner interrupted by equal marriage activists

The Australian opposition leader, Tony Abbott, who is against equal marriage in the country, has been the target of a small group of equal marriage activists during dinner with a journalist at a restaurant.

Mr Abbott was dining at Melbourne’s Lygon Street when the protestors surrounded his table, and began to chant: “Tony Abbott, you’re a bigot, gay marriage you don’t dig it.” They were quickly removed by the hotel staff.

Ali Hogg, behind a campaign group called Equal Love, organised the protest after she was tipped off by a fellow diner in the restaurant.

Mr Abbott is understood to have retorted by saying: “I think you’ve made your point. I think you should leave now.”

Yet, the protestors continued chanting outside, banging on the restaurant windows, chanting: “Gay, straight, black or white, marriage is a civil right.” Ms Hogg also told Australian media that some passers-by joined the protest, while staff members at the restaurant itself made a make-shift petition in favour of equal marriage and presented it to Mr Abbott.

Mr Abbott said in a statement: “I think people should be able to enjoy a quiet meal with a friend on a Sunday night in Lygon Street.” To which Ms Hogg replied: “Our dinners get interrupted by his bigotry over the airwaves too often.”